Probes

It’s been a while since we last heard from the Parker Solar Probe, the NASA spacecraft voted most likely to end up as a blistered chunk of molten metal. An update from the space agency suggests it’s now all systems go for the Sun-bound probe, which recently began its second of 24 planned stellar orbits. Read More >>

NASA’s Galileo spacecraft surprised scientists when it revealed that Jupiter’s moon Ganymede generated its own magnetic field. But new research shows Ganymede also creates incredibly powerful waves that rocket particles to enormous energies. Read More >>

Last year, Stephen Hawking and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner hatched an ambitious plan to send a tiny probe to the Alpha Centauri star system. Travelling at 20 per cent the speed of light, the researchers weren’t entirely sure how the probe was supposed to stop once it arrived at its destination, or whether it would even be able to. Excitingly, a pair of European scientists now say they’ve solved the problem. Read More >>

The UK Space Agency has updated us on the status of the lost Beagle 2 probe, saying it had a successful landing on Mars back in 2003 -- and has been photographed sitting right where is was supposed to be by the latest NASA observer. Read More >>

1999 JU3: It doesn't sound like a very noteworthy name. It's just one of more than 5,000 Apollo-class asteroids. But 1999 JU3 could become a household name if Japan succeeds in mining it—a mission that JAXA has struggled with for decades, often disastrously. And on Sunday, it revealed the probe that could redeem it. Read More >>

Colin Pillinger, the excellently eccentric and brilliantly sideburned scientist behind the failed attempted to land a probe on Mars in the early 2000s, had died. We will fondly remember his gloriously bonkers and enthusiastic appearances on the news. He was the previous generation's Brian Cox. Read More >>

US aerospace company Lockheed Martin has joined the Mars One project, with the developer of the successful NASA Phoenix lander signing up to build the critical landing pod for the private Mars mission. Read More >>

A team of British scientists is claiming to have found alien life, but not from the dust craters of Mars or by picking up radio waves from the TVs of distant worlds. They believe organic matter that came back onboard an observation balloon may be alien microbes. Read More >>

Probably the worst part of going to the doctor's is being poked and prodded with any number of terrifying probes, but you probably haven't seen many of the really scary implements that are out there. Here are 16 crazy ones you probably don't want anywhere near you. Read More >>

The European Space Agency's next mission will be known as JUICE -- Jupiter Icy moons Explorer -- an attempt to see what lies on and around the alien worlds of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Read More >>